Johnny Manziel is holding out hope for a return to football in 2016, his attorney told ESPN on Wednesday. But one source close to the quarterback said he recognizes that window might be closing, making a possible 2017 comeback attempt more feasible.
"His immediate plans are to start getting ready for football," attorney Jim Darnell told ESPN staff writer Jeremy Fowler. "We're working on it."
Since being released by the Cleveland Browns in March, Manziel has been charged with misdemeanor assault for allegedly rupturing the eardrum of ex-girlfriend Colleen Crowley during a January dispute, sued over a trashed rental home and dropped by two agents, Erik Burkhardt and Drew Rosenhaus.
An NFL team giving Manziel a chance in a 2016 training camp appears slim, and he would be subject to the league's personal conduct policy upon return. The league is investigating the assault charge.
One family friend said Manziel's parents are "just sick" over their son's struggles. "This is a crisis," the friend said. "I hope someone kicks the [expletive] out of the kid and forces him to get right."
Ray Farmer, the former Browns general manager who drafted Manziel, said the quarterback's immediate future is "tenuous."
"I'm concerned for the person more than I am the player," Farmer said. "I do hope Johnny finds the help he needs to put himself back together."
Manziel, 23, has a June 24 status hearing for the assault charge. His attorney said Manziel, who does not have to attend the hearing, will plead not guilty.
Go Cubs go
Seven-year-old cancer survivor Beckham Zobrist gets to see the world with a unique perspective.
In 2012, Zobrist was diagnosed with retinoblastoma, a rare form of cancer. According to WGN-TV in Chicago, the only way doctors were able to remove it and keep it from spreading to Zobrist's brain was to remove his right eye.
"He plays sports, he's in school; it's like nothing happened to him," Nick Zobrist, Beckham's dad, said. "We're really proud of him."
But after getting taunted by his T-ball teammates and being called a "freak," Zobrist asked his parents for a new eye for Christmas. When that couldn't be granted, Zobrist's parents gave the baseball lover his next request: A prosthetic eye custom made with a Chicago Cubs logo.
Zobrist recently visited Wrigley Field with his new outlook and met both Kyle Schwarber and Anthony Rizzo -- himself a cancer survivor. The Zobrist family also received a personal tour from Cubs bench coach Dave Martinez.
"He's my idol, and I look up to him and other kids like him that's gone through what he's gone through and wish him all the best," Martinez said. "I told him he's more than welcome to come back any time he wants."
The day left him speechless, but he did manage to whisper something to his father.
"He did say, because we went to Disney World two years ago for Make-A-Wish, he told me that Make-A-Wish was now No. 2 and this is No. 1," Nick Zobrist said.
Sports on 06/10/2016